rotation. monday september 10 was our first day back. on the morning of september 11, i was actually actually flying and i had come down very early and somebody said hey you have to look at this. i remember thinking as i look at that first tower of war burning, what kind of a pilot could hit a tower that size on a clear day? the second plane hit and wailed as they figure that out. they sent a bunch of us up to close down the airspace and i talk about that. for a pilot that is really scary. >> you don't always find many newspaper editors of any error embracing reporting. the point we have seen over the years, it's not just economics. it's this confer that investigative reporting causes in the newsroom. because it's that more than the economics and if you're going to ruffle the feathers of somebody powerful that gives the people

running in to complain to the publisher. donna and don and i were very fortunate in the 70's which almost all of our career work for people who were probably strong enough right in that area and let the chips fall where they may. ..

>> host: sarah wineman, give us your general assessment of 2012 for the book industry, especially nonfiction books, and what are one or two notable books you want to talk about? >> guest: well, first, it's helpful, peter, by starting off saying 2012 was a very eventful year in the book publishing world between publishers consolidating, the department of justice suing five publishers and apple on e-book pricing and many developments we'll cover later on in the program. they expanded publishing operations, the google settlement moving forward in different directions alone counting for a substantial portion of book publishing news. on the non-fiction front, i have to say it was a very advantage year. in particular, we're seeing a

lot of best of 2012 lists dominated by the likes "behind the beautiful forevers," winner of the national book award. we have robert cara's latest biography on lyndon johnson, and andrew solomon's "far from the tree" an over 900-page compendium looking at different child rearing examples of special needs children. those three books alone are needy, substantial books, but the tip of the iceberg on terms of what was on iewfer for -- offer for non-fiction. >> host: bob, same question. >> guest: right. it was a big year for dead presidents. caro's, the fourth of probably five volumes on lyndon johnson, just an incredible act of both reporting and writing about a general figure in 20th century

american history. also, goodwin's book "team of rivals," published in 2005 is back on the best seller list thanks to steven spielberg's movie, "lincoln," and on our list, it's number 20, remarkable for a serious book that's been out for so long. also, john's biography of thomas jefferson. just when you think there's no more to be said, someone writes a popular, read readable, somewhat controversial book. >> host: hard to mention dead presidents and not mention "killing lincoln" and "killing kennedy" both best sellers. >> guest: bill and his writing partner, martin. i introduced bill about his process. o'riley says the partner does

the research, and he does the writing. he has the idea to write history like a thriller, not in an academicceps. you have to trust him where he got the information from. it's like history is a page turner. he's promising to announce his next book, which in o'reilly fashion, he says is going to, you know, blow the walls down, the biggest book in non-fiction history. we'll see about that. yes, his point, o'reilly's point is that history is treated too dryly, dryly being a word, i don't know, but it need not be. there's a lot of personality, probably more personality than policy in the book. >> host: sarah, books come out on current presidents, and this year, no expectation with president obama and mrs. obama, and ca, this tor wrote "the obamas," a reporter with the

"new york times," and david marines's first half on president obama, barack obama: the story" came out as well. >> guest: yes, whenever there's a sitting president, it's a boom for publishers who jump on the wagon and publish as much books as possible. it's interesting to me in particular because it delves into the early life of barack obama from his childhood to a student in new york to early organizing days and he did a thorough job in terms of talking with a whole lot of different people who knew the president in his early life. cantor also clearly did quite a bit of reporting and investigation with her book about the marriage between barack obama and michelle obama, and rachel, from what i understand, took a larger view looking at the first lady and her larger ancestry and putting

together a larger story as a result. >> host: now, bob -- >> guest: now, those -- >> host: go ahead, please. >> guest: no, i was just going to say of the three, my favorite was the marines. it was exhaustive and exhausting. there's every detail, and it ends as obama is going off to harvard or just enters harvard law school. it's a coming of age biography, the early part of the president's life, and it was very well researched. the jodi book on the political marriage, i thought it was a bit forced. i feel unless you're part of a marriage, it's awful hard to understand, and, especially, when she -- cantor tried to make the case that michelle obama was far more political than she would let on and political tension, a lot of sort of counts

of fighting in the obama white house, reported widely in the early days. rachel's history was valuable because we forget although the attention is on president obama being the first black president, because his black ancestors came from elsewhere, there were no slaves in his family. michelle obama had both slaves and white ancestors. it's a great, you know, american complexity in how we reduce race to black and white, but it really isn't. >> host: in fact, just to very quickly mention, david's book "barack obama: the story" booktv traveled to kenya with him, did a lot of taping over there. you can see all of that and the special that we did with david at our website, booktv.org, use the search function up in the upper left hand corner, type in the name, and you can watch some of that footage. it was quite a trip to kenya to see some of that background.

yes, sir? >> guest: and one of the great parts of the reporting was he sort of deconstructed obama's early memoir, "dreams of my father," and i think -- >> guest: a con fliewns of two right there. >> guest: i had the father's part right, when he wrote in 1995 or so? 1995 or 1996. >> guest: yes. >> guest: and he went back and re-reported some of the events, and we learned what was accurate in the book, what was not accurate, and so it's a great companion to reed if you read obama's memoir. >> host: now, there's publishers, counter, wnd, that put out a lot of anti-president obama books like edwards kline "the amateur," "the great

destroyer" "i am the change," and "obama's america," critical of president obama. do these books sell well? >> guest: they do sell well because they are rightly or wrongly a counter point. readers wish to buy that that, and as a result, these books have an an active audience. now that he's re-elected, i'm serve publishers who are conservatively inclined will continue to produce books that sell well because they will continue to appeal to an audience that demands these books. >> host: now, bob, have you interviewed any of the critical authors? >> guest: no -- well, let's see, glenn beck, but he's not recently taken on exactly president obama. sort of interesting. i think this is generally true,

who whoever -- whoever is in the power in the white house, the opposite political slant on books does better. when a liberal democrat is in the white house, conservatives tend to do belter. when there's a conservative in the white house like bush, books critical of the president tend to do better. in fact, i remember bush, at one point, during the -- questioned about jobs or something, and he said, well k look what i'm doing for the book industry because there were so many books out critical of him. now, that was the middle of his second term. >> guest: yet, the irony with president bush is when his book, "decision points" came out several years ago, i believe if it was not the best selling book of that year, it was awfully close. >> guest: the theory that people vote at the bookstore in much smaller numbers, but you show your alliance by going out and buying a book that agrees with your political position, which i think generally, most of

the books are bought by people who already agree with the authors. >> host: realtime policy books also came out in 2012 like jamesman's "the obamaias," the oath, the obama white house versus the supreme court, and michael's "the new new deal: hidden story of change in the obama era," along with bob woodward's" the price of politics". did bob's book get the attention that most of his books get? >> guest: feeling is that it got initial attention, but that it was crowded out by just the nature of the news cycle happening so fast. officially, at least in my mine, there were a couple nuggets reported before, but there was not that many other ones that emerged after those initial one or two, so, therefore, the book

lost momentum, but i'm sure bob will have an equally substantive answer on this front too. >> guest: i believe, it's always a standard of what you compare it to. for bob woodward, it was not his most commercially successful book. i think sarah touched on two things. one, the news cycle has so speeded up, and the other factor was the topic. it was about the negotiations over the budget and the debt. that's not exactly an exciting sexy topic for a lot of people. opposed to his books on maneuverings in the bush white house over the war, which i think would have more interest. >> host: well -- >> guest: one thing i wanted to bring up that's related to the books, an emerging trend in 2012 is current events topics are not the domain of larger non-fiction titles that tyke a very long time to produce by

larger publishers, but the add vent r shorter form digital books by companies by the likes of byliner or newspapers and magazines that entered the e-book market, and, in fact, "usa today" launched its e-book, usa tomorrow. publishers of any stripe can come to market very early with timely topics of political nature as the election season really showed, they could get the news out in a wider way with an e-book than if they would have had to wait several months or a year for a book. >> guest: i thought michael's book "the new new deal," hard to say, "the knew knew deal" -- "the new new deal," should be got more attention than it did, was interesting, and not what owe were reading in newspapers or magazines or what was discussed on tv. he's a nonpartisan, and he -- it

was an appreciation of what the stimulus, not only did for the economy, but what it means for the environment and all of that, and sort of a story that had gotten lost in all the politics in washington. >> host: well, bob, we have to comment as an employee of usa today, comment on usa tomorrow. >> guest: and the day after. i should thank sarah for the plug for that. what we did, the newspaper is, i think, in september was 30 years old so a a bunch of reporters were sent out to talk to people who could predict what the world would be like in 30 years from now, which would be, what are we talking about? 2042. you're better at math than i am. i -- anyway, they made predictions, and they talked about what it means for their industries, and we put out a little tab, and now that tab, tab or little sheet, is now an e-book, which i think you can

buy for the grand total of $1.99 or $2.99. they have not really taken off yet. these short form, somewhere in between a book and a amazing, byliner does a lot of good ones, and amazon has been doing them. they can be posted almost immediately, and they sell for -- $2 or $4, maybe more. a few made the best seller list. some have been fiction. amy tan wrote a story called "too long to be a short story and too short to be a novel," and it just fit perfectly into this format. >> host: well, the wars, i should say, continue to produce books including "little america: the war within the war for afghanistan," tom ricks' "the generals" "the finish: the killing of osama bin laden," and another book by mark owens "no

easy day: the firsthand account of killing bin laden," and there was a mid list book that got a second wind, all in the education of general david petraeus by paula broadwell. sarah, comments on those books? >> guest: funny you eluded to broadwell's book that got a second wind. in light of petraeus' resignation and ms. broadwell's role in that, that's why her book got that second wind, why the paperback publication was pushed up. i think what it's done a little bit, though, is take away from the larger aspect of these books. when scandal rears its head, one focuses too much on that rather than the substance of the books, but one thing, i think, that's worth pointing out, especially in relation to the mark owen, and mark owen, a pseudonym for one of the navy seals involved

in the mission to kill osama bin laden is that the book's publisher, i believe was penguin press, they announced that with only weeks to spare, and i felt at least that they did a very brilliant job of marketing that book. of course, it doesn't help or perhaps it didn't hurt, depending on who you ask, that mark owen's real name was dutifully revealed by the media which then caused a fire storm and the like, but the upshot is many of the books, even with commensurate media attention, it doesn't translate into sales. where "no easy day" did phenomenally well. what's worth pointing out, too, anything to do with the killing of osama bin laden is back in the news again with the upcoming movie "zero dark thirty" directed by katherine bigalow and written by mark bowel, those responsible for "the hurt

locker," and it's interesting to see that the cia's been cooperating, and, also, whether the account of the movie conflicts with the account in mark owen's books that conflicts with the act of bowden's book, piecing this together to piece together a comprehensive account of what really happened is like redoing rashaman. >> host: bob? >> guest: according to our book, broadwell's book did not do well in the commercial sense. it did not crack or top 400 any one week despite all the publicity, but there was another title call the requested all in" that made the list which was some sort of romance erotica, perhaps, somewhere in between there. i was not read either of "all in," the fiction and non-fiction. there's an interesting book coming out, talking about books

coming out, and fred caplan has one called "the insurgents," considering a new breed of soldiers that tried to redefine the role of the military, and general petraeus is one much his major subjects, i think. be interesting to see whether the personal scandal will have died down enough to get back to the policy issues of the role of the military and the role of generals. >> guest: one side benefit related to the katherine book is they pushed up the publication of the book in large part of the reaction to the ongoing scandal so, it was, i believe, going to be late january, and now it's the beginning of january. >> host: we also want to look at award winners of 2012. the national book awards, as we have mentioned, katherine "behind the beautiful forevers" won the national book award this year, but the nominees were "iron curtain," "passage of

power," "the boy kings of texas," and "the late anthony: house of stone." bob, any comment os those? brian: i admiredded the anthony shadid book a great deal. yipe, i read it just after he had died. shadid was a reporter for a long time for "the washington post" and the "new york times" and died related to an as ma -- asthma attack covering the civil war in syria. he grew up in oklahoma, of all places, an american-lebanese family. he ended up fascinated by the middle east, became a reporter, and the life mission was to try to explain this region to americans, which is no easy thing to do. he covered his -- more than his share of wars issue and in the course of that, sort of his first marriage fell apart

because he was always overseas covering the war. he ends up buying his family's old ramshackled house somewhere in lebanon. i forget the name of the village, and takes a year off to restore the house. it sounds like a movie, almost, which he does with great difficulty. the book, his memoir, blends in both lebanese history, and it's glorious past, which is sadly been destroyed through civil war, as well as his own personal story so we sort of -- it was -- shortly before the book came out, he died. he was no more than 40 or 45. >> host: sarah weinman? >> guest: well, i feel like in looking at this list, i feel an unmitigated surge to talk about how much i adored the katherine book and i made a joke on twitter that if her book made

every single best of 2012 lists, that would be perfectly fine by me. it's a phenomenal piece, not only of reporting, but of literature. she writes beautifully, with a tremendous sense of empathy. she's a new yorker staff writer, and previous recipient of the mcarthur, quote-on-quote, genius grant. her husband is indian, and she spent at least three years in a slum right outside of mumbai chronicallying people's lives seeing how they coped on being the verge of industrial change, but struggling with deep poverty, and she presents their lives and reports on them in a way that is obviously taking into account the tremendous suffering, but, also, shows humanity, moments of humor, moments of great familiar joy

that some of the people involved go through. i felt just so unbelievably moved reading it, and it's a book, frankly, i could not put down either. i had to keep reading. i absolutely see why not only it won the national book award, but why so many people responded to it and why it's sold fairly well, and why i think it's going to take its place as the best book published in the last few years. >> guest: she's not in the book much at all. >> guest: keeps herself out of it. >> guest: it's old-fashioned reporting done incredibly well and written incredibly well. >> host: sarah mentioned best of lists coming out by publications, the washington post, "the economist," ect., ect., all aggregated at booktv.org, go to our website, booktv.org, you can see a lot of the best of 2012 books lists.

they are under our section called "news about books." pulitzers this year, steven won for general notary public-fiction "the swerve: history," and "malcolm x," and john lewis "george f. cannon: an american life." bob, what's "the swerve" about? >> guest: "the swerve," if i remember right. i dipped into the book when it came out. it was fascinating. it was a little on the side of being -- i don't want to say -- intellectual, i don't mean to say that dismissively, but it -- it's about a poem -- trying to -- sarah, help me here, do you remember the name of the poem? >> guest: oh, gosh, not

offhand. >> guest: we are flunking this exam here. >> host: let me ask you this then -- >> guest: rediscovered in the renaissance, and then it changed the way -- it was published i guess or -- >> guest: presented. >> guest: yes, printed. >> host: didn't mean to put you on the spot there, but it's called "the swerve." >> guest: the idea is that the culture swerved a bit taking on a mod earn take on -- modern take on life, and the fear of dying, i think, is the big thing, dealt with the fear of dying which was far more predominant and stopped people from doing nings prior to this. i believe that's the part of "the swerve." >> host: sarah, if a book is nominated or wins a national book award or nominated and wins a pulitzer, does it change sales? >> guest: well, i think as an example to answer your question, the pulitzer prize did not award

a prize in fiction this year, which i believe was the first time that had happened since the late 1970s, and there was a huge uproar because certainly for fiction winners, the pulitzer has an appreciating effect on sales. paul harding, when he won the fiction prize for his novel "tinkers," he was published by a little publisher, and not only did he win and sell more than 100,000 copies, but his next novel is published by random house in 2013. it completely changed his career and sales trajectory. jennifer eagan, another example, winning the pulitzer in fiction, she sold, all right, but she was a mid list writer, and in the wake of her win, she's now, i think, firmly entrenched as one of thee most sought after writers in american literature

right now. not awarding the fiction prize this year, it certainly sent a lot of shock waves. it will be interesting to see if they repeat that in 2013 or learn from that quote-on-quote, mistake, and make sure an author wins a fiction prize this time out. >> guest: i know a lot of libraries will -- the awards announced, check holdings and see if they have the book, and if they don't, they'll order the books. that doesn't make a best seller, but it establishes it in a different realm, and i think prizes are most important when the person is not that well-known, someone like jennifer eagan, suddenly establishes them creating a curiosity about them. >> host: several members of congress wrote books this past year including senator rand paul, "government bullies," rentive john louis wrote "across that bridge," and senator rubio"

biography american son," and representative tim ryan "mindful nation: how a single practice can reduce stress, improve performance, and recapture the american spirit." off the beaten path for members of congress. senator tom coburn "the debt bomb," and robert draper wrote "do not ask what good we do inside the u.s. house of representatives." do you look for the books when they come out by members of congress or politicians? >> guest: i mean, i certainly note them, but i feel as if, at least from my stand point, that the books are a way to entrench members of congress, not just in their positions, but, also, potentially, to position them for future runs be it within their current offices or maybe something different so it seems as if it's more of a calling card than it is furthering their career as authors.

certainly, being authors of books is yet another feather in the cap of politicians so it's just a way of announcing to the larger public that they are part of the larger conversation. ..

>> we paid attention to the mark rubio book when he was touted as the vice presidential candidate then we lost interest. he has a future in the republican party. it will come back. >> host: well known for members and officials have written books including colin powell, madeleine albright another book "prague winter" and the late senator arlen specter had a book out in april 2020 -- 2012 "life among the campbell" and arnold schwarzenegger "total recall" .

how did that do? >> guest: it did not hit expectations. sanders and he had an interesting profile piece. >> i could interview the oven governor author if you have forgotten after he left the governorship, and governor schwarzenegger had an affair with his housekeeper who fathered his son that led to his wife, maria shriver, a piece of kennedy, that is involved in everything. he comes out with 600 pages everything he has ever done

growing up austria, bodybuilding fame, it this an incredible american immigrants story. he comes to america to become a movie star. he does. then governor of california. need while the affair with the housekeeper is five pages of the book. he deals with it. he made a mistake. he regrets it. it is what people say in those situations. i interviewed him on the phone the friday before he already agreed to be on "60 minutes." midway through the interview, i should not imitate him he said i don't like the way the interview

is going he thought too many questions about the housekeeper and not his accomplishments. if you like arnold schwarzenegger it is there. >> host: political pundits including charles murray" coming apart." and rachel matt dow " drift" and ann coulter mug to. they always make the best seller list for a couple of weeks? >> she had switched publishers because at one point if you put a book with her name and her face on the cover it is dead guaranteed sales of six figures that

has been dropping over time but this seems she had to abut the rhetoric to sell fewer and fewer copies. it will be interesting to see what she does for the next book and how far she is willing to go. >> rachel when don beyond the usual pundit book questioning american military power it is not written from the liberal perspective as an unabashed liberal. she is on tv but has a ph.d. in something. and charles murray probably would not want to be called as a pundit but this is a question that looks at the

white working-class to separate class of from race. how the values of the lower rate have gone down hill and the white e leaked and the working class has lost the values to describe these things it is more than ranting. >> host: so probably not fair to call a political pundit. what about glenn beck? his fox show is off the air. can you see the results of the sales? >> what he has been doing

since fox has been trying to build the brand reaching a dedicated community through a satellite radio and has a new website called the blaze in the and he does as a dedicated imprint through signage schuster. his philosophy moves toward the same dedicated will following building on that over time rather than the mass reach that fox had said this way klan can do what he does best. but he has shifted what he has done over the last few

years and no doubt will adapt his persona. >> he has a new novel out. the previous novel, which is by glenn beck and two other people. james patterson is a great example of that. you usually don't see three people. i asked him who wrote the book he said what do you mean? i did. they did the keyboard it is a team effort. to call him an author he may disputed but it is part of old brand marketing.

newsletter, cable show he is his own little media empire i am not sure it and how he left fox but the is still popular. he writes about christmas our politics and it sells. >> host: prior to this interview from sarah weinman and bob minzesheimer we ask you for your picks. one was a national book award finalist "the yellow birds." >> booktv does not do a lot of fiction. he served in iraq and joined the army and a group in richmond, virginia and joined out of is goal put had a love of poetry.

he went undergraduate and he wrote a beautiful novel about horror and destruction and what it does. to young kids from virginia it is not all that autobiographical but it is a great sense of what it was like to be there for those who have not. it is called the yellow bird is a remarkable accomplishment. >> host: sarah weinman. "the patriarch." >> guest: i am almost done reading it. i read fiction must faster than nonfiction because it is a thorough and comprehensive biography of kennedy, the father of president kennedy and many

others. active heading the sec, ambassador to london, hollywood film industry, very active, sometimes that relationship could get contentious and i feel that the author put to so much research, more than six years going to archive after archive and cross checking. he seems to approve an definitively joke kennedy was not a bootlegger although rumors persisted for decades. i admire the scholarship and i am very glad to have spent the weeks with this book. >> with the kennedy family fascination, what if nixon had been kennedy?

would of john kennedy had never been president? we thought of thousands of books and never have been written. once interviewed carolyn kennedy she is famous for staying on message. in an attempt to get her off message they sent what about a kennedy bookstore? and she was thinking about it she would not say. you could have an entire bookstore devoted to the kennedys. scandals, serious history, arnold schwarzenegger, he tells a story where he and maria our house hunting for pro someone shows them the house

in los angeles in the real-estate agents said joseph kennedy lived year and there is a tunnel under the house going to gloria swanson's house. riyal was both interested and embarrassed by asked why he put that in the book and he did not really answer the question kennedy bookstore? there is a link and bookstore in chicago. >> it is doing phenomenal well. >> a think that would be good and to also bring in the cuomo family with their ceasing to exist relationship. >> host: not a fair question but if you compare david nassau the patriarch

and bill o'reilly book would sell how many copies? 1 million? 10,000? are those figures close? >> i think you are a little low but not too much. bill o'reilly killing lincoln sold close at 2 million copies and it is out more than one year and not in paperback and has not slowed down he talked in an interview with me he says there billion do have to go on vacation to read the book is our 300 pages you can read them in a couple of days. it depends how much reader

wants to devote to what publishers don't think about the zero is the bigger bucks top out at $35. >> i have seen it as high as two to $5. >> guest: but his was $25. if you sold them her page the bigger books you get more for your money and you can occupy your brain for a longer period of time. but life is not fair. >> guest: and one visa and the biography has taken that long because there is almost 100 pages of source notes, footnotes, a comprehensive index so i want to check where did he

get this fact? the index come within notes, online going down the rabbit hole. it is not just the text but the sources used to create the book. it becomes an aversive experience. >> how long will it re-read? >> as opposed to a book that has been forgotten in one year. this will sound academic but the importance of footnotes. publishers do not lake the paper spent on footnotes. why not just online?

i mention that to write the. he said maybe next time but i think for writers like that some sources may not be a strong. with the killing kennedy notes there is the scene describing john kennedy it is not just about the assassination. he describes the scene kennedy meets marilyn monroe at being crosbies house that was moved from frank sinatra because kennedy had been warned franc was involved with some mafia. you can imagine bill o'reilly looking at these names. and everyone knew that

president kennedy would sleep with marilyn monroe that night. period. no retribution. how does he know that? he had a source from the london daily mail, a tabloid that had recorded this years ago and confirmed by secret service agent who was at the party but could not be identified. is that verifiable? it is something. sources are important. how he knows he is writing about is important and a popular history losses over that. >> guest: 2012 in general there were conversations of fact checking, corroborating sources, that what you wrote

to was true and it brought down general there who writing about neuroscience so the book imagine can now and it turns out he had fabricated one source said copied extensively from earlier writings. as a result the publisher had to withdraw the book and it remains to b.c. -- remains to be seen his career. >> host: "the new york times" best seller list the most weeks on the list. of the top of the list is "and broke and" published 2010 followed by killing linkdin, walter isaacson, as steve jobs is number four. 2011.

another 2011 title. the power of havoc and edward klein and tina fey fey" boss pants." and that was on the list. sarah weinman what is wild? >> that was an amazing memoir by a woman to a previously written a novel called torch. she would describe in her mid-20s a failed marriage, her mother died, drug issues, she decided she would walk the pacific coast trail and did so with minimal preparation

and described how doing this walk broker apart the put her back together. it was on the best built cellar for so long and to understand the advanced high as oprah winfrey decided to revive the book club she may not have a nationally syndicated show but she does have the oprah winfrey network and her magazine with the on-line conduit so when she chose wild, it read to a -- lead to a great uptick of sales. so then also other books like tiny beautiful things was reissued. oprah made her next

selection and a debut novel from a woman who have never previously published fiction before but had written extensively for the magazine >> host: let's look at publishing news 89 over the past year. the price of e-books. >> what you have about two minutes. [laughter] i made the third two sarah because this gets extremely complicated. it comes down to about zero between publishers and amazon. she can jump been if i am oversimplifying. >> guest: i will do my

best for the there was the burgeoning class-action lawsuit coming to head in april when the department of justice sued the largest publishers except random house for colluding on the e-books prices for the agency model. the publishers that the price is not the retailer. barnes & noble and amazon could set their own prices before that. the department of justice did not like that. harpercollins settled now we finally see fluctuation of the publishers e-books prices. apple, penguin and macmillan will fight the suit a trial is said june 2013. of the case is ongoing. there has been legal

maneuverings and is a settlement all states except minnesota. $69 million will be allocated to give back to customers who felt they paid too high of the price. >> is the $9.99 e-books coming back? >> that was a policy. amazon was shifting prices lower and lower publishers about they cannot make profit. best other model enabled them to make profits. if you look at the earnings reports throughout the year where e-books contributed a healthy bottom line. but another major publishing story was a merger between random house and penguin how

that will come about the department of justice will have to say. penguin is in litigation how can they approve the largest publisher in american history? >> guest: also complaining against amazon they tried to sell to 12 as cheap as possible to sell the amazon can go. they really want to do that. now amazon has gotten into traditional publishing and will sign big-name authors. so now they compete on many levels and it creates all kinds of tension. >> guest: some of the names have not sold. penny marshall's book which

i think was sold as six figures wildly underperform to in the new york operation has been getting some critical acclaim but barnes & noble and independent stores are not stalking the title. so with the shot graphics and those are selling well because those do well as the e-books but competing with the big six they're not worthy competitor yet to. that may change. >> host: according to the association of publishers' e-books sales are up 37% but the entire adult books are up 10 .4%. sarah weinman what happened with the google settlement? >> guest: as it stands it

is still on going with the authors guild fighting it out. but google did reach a new settlement with publishers. that segment will longer be fought in the court. the suit has been going on almost eight years if not more. the presiding judge has moved on to the appeals a quote -- appeals court over three years and this is the last chanting case. i sure he would like to see resolution but the authors guild like to fight it out. >> host: bob minzesheimer. self publishing in 2012? >> it is when you pay to get your book published.

you and not get royalties. this has been looked down upon anybody could do it. you could be an author. the digital world has changed that now suddenly on the "usa today" list the self published books some are not even in print only as the e-books. the big barrier was distribution. getting them in the store with no publisher you had no distribution channel. that is changing. so publishers have been buying the services it is complicated. pain when bought author solutions that publish hundreds of thousands of

books some sell 50 copies every so often one is a big hit through the internet simon & schuster which competes with bank when has a deal, i am not sure what they're doing. >> guest: it is a white hat label the put the name but the other does the work. >> but publishers fear what happens when the big-name author decides to self published james patterson, stephen king, i will be my own publisher. that has not have been the at. >> host: we are out of time. we asked both sarah weinman and bob minzesheimer in